Allen Trial

Mal Allen and Dean Partington take the Major Awards on well supported event

Calvin Samuel captures Allen Trial winner Mal Allen in his Marlin as he tackles the mud of John Walker as the light starts to fade. More of Calvins work on his Website csphotos.biz where you can purchase hires downloads

Bristol Motor Club and its well established organising team were rewarded by 66 entries for their Allen Trial.

This years event followed the Allens well established format, utilising as many public tracks as possible. It wasn’t that long ago that The Allen was an all public track event. However, the inevitable loss of access has necessitated a couple of excursions onto private land these days.

The Allen has a reputation as neither being particularly rough or tough. This coupled with the dry conditions resulted in 14 clean sheets.

Mal Allen took home The Allen Trophy with his Marlin after putting in the fastest times on the Special Tests. Mal and Dean Partington put in an identical performance on the Ubley Wood test but Mal was nearly a second quicker at Frys Bottom. Dean was awarded the Redcliffe Trophy for best clubman and was best in Class Eight.

Six Entries in Class 2

Two of the clean sheets were in Class 2 where there were 5 starters. Emma Wall took the Class win in her Austin Seven from class stalwart Bill Bennett with his familiar MG J2. Emma and Bill were the only clean sheets but John Wilton had a good run in, or perhaps on!, his Trojan, dropping only four marks to come home third in class.

Class 5 had a bumper entry of 17 varied cars, of nine different types. With four clean sheets ACTC Wheelspin Trophy contender David Haizelden had to settle for second in class when Philip Buckle was faster on the Special Tests.

A special mention for Roger Ashby who had the misfortune to retire his Coates Orthoptera on the road out of Bath towards John Walker. Rogers interesting car has an Austin Seven chassis and Ford Ten engine, the perfect example of the specification that was so prevalent immediately before and after the war.

Healthy entry in Class Six as well

There were six larger capacity rear engined cars, four Beetles, an MGF and an MR2. Adrian Tucker-Peake in the MGF took the class win. There were no clean sheets here as Class 6 had to restart on the tree roots and polished stones of Guys Hill. Both Adrian and Mark Smith dropped their only marks of the trial here. The class going to Adrian on test times.

Class 7 was the most popular on the trial and provided the winner of The Allen Trophy when Mal Allen put in a dominant performance on the all important special tests. Dave Greenslade was the first of only two event retirements when his Marlins axle broke and jammed solid on Travers. It took some time to clear the car from the hill and a long queue soon developed. This resulted in the majority of the entry running quite a way behind the first four cars during the afternoon.

As Dave was the first restarter officials wisely decided to cancel the restart for the rest of the entry to avoid further delays. Travers had required a lot of work before the event to repair the effects of water damage.

Dean Partington eases his DP Wasp off the Burledge Restart on his way to best Clubman and second best performance of the day on The Allen Trial

Tough Restarts for Class Eight

Dean Partington hasn’t been so active on ACTC events this year but showed he hasn’t lost his touch, setting the fast times on the special tests, taking the class win. Dean had entered as a Clubman rather than National B, winning that category and the Redcliffe Trophy.

Only Dean and Stewart Green had clean sheets in Class 8, a product of their exclusive restarts on Ubley 1 and Frys Bottom 3. One or both caused problems for the rest of the class. Ryan Eamer dropped a one on Frys Bottom 1 in his tidy Cannon to come third. he was followed by Wheelspin contender Paul Merson who also dropped a one here but also another three on Ubley 1.

Reputations are Hard to Win and Easy to Loose

All in all another successful Allen Trial. It’s an event where multiple clean sheets are likely, especially when it’s so dry like this year. However, the event is very popular with all, from those who normally like tough events through to occasional competitors with more delicate machinery. Its in safe hands with the present team. Long may it continue.